Birmingham Post Food Critic Richard McComb has been shortlisted for a top national award for his work championing British food.

McComb has been shortlisted in the Guild of Food Writers annual awards, which are recognised as the most prestigious in the field of food writing and broadcasting.

He is in the running for the Michael Smith Award for Work on British Food and is up against celebrated cookery writer Elisabeth Luard, for A Cook’s Year in a Welsh Farmhouse, and restaurateur and BBC Great British Menu judge Oliver Peyton, for Peyton and Byrne British Baking.

McComb has been shortlisted for a six-part series, published in the Birmingham Post, which focused on the work of food and drink producers, chefs and independent shops in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Birmingham.

Michael Smith was a great supporter of British food and food traditions and the guild’s award for work on British food was set up in his memory. Previous winners include Tom Parker Bowles and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

It is the second year in a row McComb has been shortlisted for a Guild of Food Writers award, having made the final three last year for Restaurant Reviewer of the Year.

The results will be announced on May 30 at Fishmongers Hall, London, where the awards will be presented by award-winning food writer Claudia Roden.

Established names shortlisted in other categories include Antonio Carluccio, Gennaro Contaldo, Yotam Ottolenghi and Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The guild’s awards are the only awards judged entirely by professional food writers, journalists and editors.

McComb said: “It is a huge honour to be shortlisted in such illustrious company. It is also a great tribute to the producers, chefs and food-lovers of the Midlands and it is wonderful that their dedication has been recognised at the highest level.”